Proverbs 5

קרא את הפרק הזה בכוונה

Proverbs 5 is a father's warning to his son about adultery, and a celebration of marriage. The forbidden woman's lips drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, but she ends bitter as wormwood, and her steps go down to death. The father describes the price in detail: strength given to others, wealth to strangers, years to the cruel, and at the end a groan of regret in front of the whole assembly, "How I hated discipline." Then the tone changes. Drink water from your own cistern. Rejoice in the wife of your youth, be captivated by her love always. The chapter closes by reminding the son that his ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and that a man is caught in the cords of his own sin.

פתח פירוש פרק

Proverbs 5 is a father talking to his son about sex, and it is remarkable for how honest it is. He does not pretend the other woman is unattractive. Her lips drip honey; her speech is smoother than oil. That is exactly why he is worried. What he wants his son to see is the end of the road rather than the beginning: wormwood, a sword, steps that go down to death. He describes the cost with an accountant's precision, your strength spent on others, your money in strangers' houses, your years handed to someone cruel, and then he does something the book of Proverbs rarely does. He writes the son's own future speech for him, the words of an old man groaning at the end of a wasted life: how I hated discipline, how I ignored my teachers, and now I am ruined in front of everyone. Then the chapter turns and becomes a love poem. Drink from your own cistern. Let your fountain be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a loving doe, and be captivated by her love always. The father's cure for adultery is not suspicion of desire but desire aimed at home. The last three verses lift the whole thing into the light of God: every path a man takes is in front of the LORD's eyes, and the sinner is not caught by God's trap but by the cords of his own making. He dies, the chapter says, for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

קטעי מפתח

Proverbs 5:3-6 Proverbs 5:11-14 Proverbs 5:15-19 Proverbs 5:21-23 Proverbs 7:6-27 Song of Solomon 4:9-12

Historical and literary context

Chapters 1 to 9 of Proverbs are a set of speeches from a father, and sometimes a mother, to a young man on the threshold of adult life, in the style of Egyptian and Mesopotamian instruction literature used to train future officials. This is the first of three extended warnings about the "strange" or forbidden woman, followed by 6:20 to 35 and chapter 7. In ancient Israel adultery was a capital offense and, when it was not punished by death, could cost a man his property in compensation to the wronged husband, which is what verses 9 and 10 describe. The cistern and well of verses 15 to 18 draw on the value of private water in a dry land, and the language of the doe and the fawn belongs to the love poetry of the Song of Songs.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 and 2 call the son to attention. Verses 3 to 6 describe the forbidden woman, honey on the lips, wormwood at the end, feet going down to death. Verses 7 to 14 spell out the consequences of going near her house: lost vigor, lost wealth, lost years, and the deathbed lament of a man who refused instruction. Verses 15 to 20 turn to marriage under the image of one's own cistern and well, with the blessing on the wife of one's youth and the question why a man would embrace a stranger instead. Verses 21 to 23 close with the LORD who sees every path and the sinner trapped in his own cords.

Why this chapter matters

The chapter is the Bible's most direct piece of practical advice on sexual fidelity, and its method is telling: it does not argue that desire is bad but that it should be directed home. "Rejoice in the wife of your youth" and "may you be captivated by her love forever" are among the warmest lines about married love in Scripture and refute the idea that the Bible is prudish. The picture of the man at the end of his life saying "How I hated discipline" has been the pattern for every sermon on the long-term cost of short-term pleasure. Verse 21, "a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD," gives the whole chapter its weight.

Interpretive tension to watch

The speech is addressed to a son about a woman, as all of Proverbs 1 to 9 is, and readers must decide how to hear it as women, or about men who seduce; the principle plainly runs both ways. Who the "forbidden woman" is has been debated: another man's wife, a foreigner, a prostitute, or, in the wider book, folly itself personified against Lady Wisdom. Verses 9 and 10 describe economic ruin whose exact mechanism is unclear. And the chapter's frankness about physical delight in verse 19 has embarrassed translators and preachers who would rather it were more spiritual than it is.

שאלות לפרק הזה

The forbidden woman's words are sweet at the start and bitter at the end. What temptations look like that in your own life?
The chapter answers adultery not with a prohibition alone but with delight in one's own marriage. Why is that a better defense?
Verse 22 says a man is held by the cords of his own sin. How does a choice become a trap?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

הוספה להערות

1 My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence. 2 That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman. 3 For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil. 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell. 6 They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable. 7 Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house. 9 Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel. 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house, 11 And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say: 12 Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof, 13 And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters? 14 I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation. 15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well: 16 Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters. 17 Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee. 18 Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth: 19 Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love. 20 Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another? 21 The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps. 22 His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins. 23 He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.

הפוך קריאה ללימוד ממשי

הירשמו כדי לשמור פסוקים, לרשום הערות וללמוד עם כלי AI.

הרשמה התחברות

בחר את הצעד הבא אחרי הפרק הזה המשך לקרוא, בחר תכנית או המשך ללמוד עם AI.

קרא את הפרק הבא Proverbs 6 in Douay-Rheims 1899.

תוכניות קריאה

בחר תכנית אם אתה רוצה להפוך את הפרק הזה להרגל קבוע.

שאל את הבינה המלאכותית על הפרק הזה

המשך עם לימוד AI אם הטקסט מעלה שאלות או דוחף יותר עמוק מקריאה אחת.

עקוב אחר הנושאים שהפרק הזה פותח מרכזי נושאים קשורים לשאלות הגדולות שהפרק הזה יכול לפתוח.

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